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Reviews Counted:272
Fresh:174
Rotten:98
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: Gritty and visually striking, Watchmen is a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel, but its complex narrative structure may make it difficult for it to appeal to viewers not already familiar with the source material.
Theatrical Release:06-03-2009
Synopsis: For those obsessed with the critically acclaimed graphic novel (which would be almost anyone who has read it), or for audiences looking for a stylish action film, WATCHMEN is worth--well--watching.... [More]
Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley
Director: Zack Snyder
The makers, marketers and producers of Watchmen have worked so hard to keep this community happy that they have lost sight of what makes a film truly exciting: our emotional engagement with the characters and their story.
Top CriticThere’s a saying that a masterpiece has already found its perfect medium. Snyder has done as good a job as anyone could have done. That’s a loaded compliment. But as compliments go, it’s a huge one.
Watchmen has taken two decades to get to cinemas. However, the biggest miracle is not that it's finally made it, but that it successfully spins a comic deemed to be unfilmable into a thoughtful, ante-upping blockbuster.
If you’re a fan, you’ll already have booked your tickets, and we doubt Snyder’s reverential approach to the bleak material will disappoint.
Through sheer will and fanboy love Snyder has succeeded where Gilliam and Greengrass failed, bringing Watchmen to the screen faithfully and smartly, if not completely.
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is the Godzilla of the genre, laying waste to any remaining misconceptions.
It’s not crash-bang enough for those who love superhero films, not complex enough for those who hate them. It’s flawed, then, but a flawed work of brilliance.
Snyder’s last-ditch attempt to raise the geeky bar by introducing “real” people dressed up as heroes is more adolescent than adult, as is the addition of e nough soft-core 1970s bump and grind to win an 18 certificate.
Top CriticIt is dizzy, crazy and quite sexy - when it's not being self-indulgent and pointless. If it doesn't quite hang together or add up, or stick faithfully to the comic-book original, these offences aren't major. What a spectacle.
Top CriticYou may frequently wonder why Snyder has bothered. But if you want a slavish, often exciting screen translation of Moore and Gibbons’ landmark, here it is.
This is a landmark film for the genre that will impress, amaze and grip but it is not light entertainment.
This despicable trash will find an audience among sad sociopaths, deranged pseudo-intellectuals and brutalised, immature men of all ages. I just hope that there aren't enough of them to make it a hit. If there are, God help cinema.
Watchmen is a spectacular visual treat, with special effects to match the ambition of the story. It is way too long... but there is no denying it is a seriously cool and bloody superhero epic.
The unfilmable has become the unlovable.
Often genius is flawed, just like the deeply troubled Watchmen heroes, and there is no doubt that this film is the product of superior minds.
Dark arterial blood pools across pavements and leaks under doorways, as though to chasten us. Unfortunately, after two and half hours of this sanguinary spectacle it wasn't catharsis I felt; it was simple weariness.
At least it looks good, like a version of The Dark Knight coupled with Taxi Driver, and remains faithful to the skin if not the bone of Moore and Gibbons’s astonishing vision.
All the emotional investment you have in them comes from your familiarity with the book, meaning newcomers may be a little lost. It really does look beautiful, though.
Impressively directed, brilliantly designed, superbly written and impeccably acted, this is a thoroughly enjoyable thriller that is essentially the best possible adaptation of Watchmen that anyone could have hoped for.
It's gripping and eye-popping, with terrific characters for the cast to sink their teeth into. But also feels rather overwrought.
July 28, 2009:
RT on DVD: We're Watching The Watchmen
This week -- much to Alan Moore's delight -- history's most notoriously "unfilmable" graphic novel Watchmen arrives on DVD and Blu-ray, while Nicolas Cage's hairpiece consorts... More...
July 28, 2009:
Paging Dr. Manhattan: The Future of Digital Characters
Peter G. Travers knows his digital effects: he's worked on the first Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and the Matrix, and most recently supervised many of the key effects... More...
July 27, 2009:
Five Favorite Films With Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons' revered work in the comic book world stretches back to the 1970s, when he contributed to cult British publications 2000 A.D. and Dan Dare, before illustrating both... More...
July 27, 2009:
Dave Gibbons Talks Watchmen
Too reverential to the source material? Not reverential enough? What happened to the squid, anyway? Zack Snyder's long-awaited adaptation of Watchmen divided both critics and... More...
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